I had an inkling earlier today to look up Frank Goodden, first man to fly from Oxford’s Port Meadow in 1911 in his own home-built machine. Sadly he was killed in 1917 flying the (an?) Se5 prototype.
Lordy, lordy, what should I find but this page
http://www.mfarchive.modelstuff.co.uk/earlybirds/1912.htm
And a picture of the machine itself (under Goodden Dragonfly). In fact, looking at it there may be a reproduction postcard available of it after a heavy landing, though that may be Hubert Latham’s Antointette which also visited that year.
For early aircraft nuts, there are 1910, 1911 and 1913 pages too – haven’t found out how many there are all-told yet! Ain’t this interweb thing wonderful?
Adrian
By: Pondskater - 22nd March 2007 at 16:19
Amazing website – such a comprehensive collection of images. I was surprised to find they’d got details – and accurate – of all the early aircraft I’ve been looking into. Great stuff.
By: adrian_gray - 22nd March 2007 at 10:09
Annoyingly, having had a look at some Antoinette pics, Latham and Goodden’s aeroplanes seem to have shared a lot of the design, especially the tail area. As that is all that is visible on the landing pic, it looks as though I amy never know. I could get a copy of the card from Jeremy’s postcards in town (who do a whole range of such things), but I am dubious as to the copyright on a reproduction card rather than an original if I were to post it here.
Besides, how many Antoinette experts are there out there?
Ah well…
Adrian
By: 25deg south - 22nd March 2007 at 07:20
[QUOTE=CSheppardholedi;1094430] Twigs, string and paper.
Philistine
🙂
By: CSheppardholedi - 22nd March 2007 at 01:31
Twigs, string and paper. Some nice shots there. Our local Museum has a large display including a full size flying replica of the 1914 Benoist flying boat Tony Jannus used in the first scheduled airline. St Petersburg to Tampa-1914. They are starting to plan for big deal for the 100th anniversary (only have seven years to plan)
Here is a link to the Museums page on the historic event. Some nice old pics buried in the site.
By: The Blue Max - 21st March 2007 at 22:34
Great Images there:)
By: Clave - 21st March 2007 at 22:08
Nice find! 😎
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March 21, 2007 at 5:09 pm